we have a campaign which is tied with the incumbent president of the united states, but is that enough 46 days before the election? also tonight, so the president says he has come to learn that you can't change washington from the inside. reminder that he ran in 2008 as an outsider, pitching change against senator john mccain. learn learned, what else has the president learned in his three years in office? the markets closed flat for the day mostly, and flat for the week. tonight we're getting hard numbers on what falling off the fiscal cliff could mean and what it could cost the markets, 20%, at the very least. so how is congress going about it? earlier today the house went into recess until after the election and the senate wraps up tonight and we'll look at washington at work or not, but first up, after months of resisting and saying he's done what's required, mitt romney put out a friday surprise and released his 2011 tax return and nbc's john harwood joins us. >> reporter: good evening, joe. mitt romney promised when he released preliminary estimates that he would release these re